New detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Lu-Hf isotopic data from metasedimentary rocks along the western boundary of the composite Avalon terrane in the southeastern New England Appalachians

ABSTRACT West Avalonia is a composite terrane that rifted from the supercontinent Gondwana in the Ordovician and accreted to Laurentia during the latest Silurian to Devonian Acadian orogeny. The nature and extent of West Avalonia are well constrained in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, Canada, by U-Pb detrital zircon data and/ or isotope geochemistry of (meta)sedimentary and igneous rocks. The southeastern New England Avalon terrane in eastern Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island has generally been interpreted as an along-strike continuance of West Avalonia in Canada, but the ages and origins of metasedimentary units along the western boundary of the Avalon terrane in Massachusetts and Connecticut remain poorly constrained. In this study, new detrital zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf laser-ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) data from three samples of metasedimentary units along the western boundary of the southeastern New England Avalon terrane in Connecticut and Massachusetts were compared with existing data to test whether these metasedimentary units can be correlated along strike. The data were also compared with existing detrital zircon U-Pb and εHf data in New England and Canada in order to constrain the extent and provenance of West Avalonia. The maximum depositional age of two of the three detrital zircon samples analyzed in this study, based on the youngest single grain in each sample (600 ± 28 Ma, n = 1; 617 ± 28 Ma, n = 1) and consistency with existing analyses elsewhere in the southeastern New England Avalon terrane, is Ediacaran, while that of the third sample is Tonian (959 ± 40 Ma, n = 4). Detrital zircon analyses of all three samples from this study showed similar substantial Mesoproterozoic and lesser Paleoproterozoic and Archean populations. Other existing detrital zircon U-Pb data from quartzites in the southeastern New England Avalon terrane show similar Tonian populations with or without Ediacaran grains or populations. Most published detrital zircon U-Pb data from (meta)sedimentary rocks in West Avalonia in Canada yielded Ediacaran youngest detrital zircon age populations, except for a quartzite unit within the Gamble Brook Formation in the Cobequid Highlands of Nova Scotia, which showed a Tonian maximum depositional age, and otherwise a nearly identical detrital zircon signature with rocks from the southeastern New England Avalon terrane. All samples compiled from the southeastern New England Avalon terrane and West Avalonia in Canada show main age populations between ca. 2.0 Ga and ca. 1.0 Ga, with major peaks at ca. 1.95, ca. 1.50, ca. 1.20, and ca. 1.00 Ga, and minor ca. 3.1–3.0 Ga and ca. 2.8–2.6 Ga populations. The εHf(t) values from the three samples yielded similar results to those from West Avalonia in Canada, suggesting that both regions were derived from the same cratonic sources. The εHf(t) values of all West Avalonian samples overlap with both Amazonia and Baltica, suggesting that there is a mixed signature between cratonic sources, possibly as a result of previous collision and transfer of basement fragments between these cratons during the formation of supercontinent Rodinia, or during subsequent arc collisions.

Constraining natural and anthropogenic disturbances in the delivery of coastal ecosystem services

Coastal ecosystems provide key services that benefit human wellbeing yet are undergoing rapid degradation due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. This thesis seeks to understand how disturbances impact salt marsh and estuarine ecosystem functioning in order to refine their role in coastal ecosystem service delivery and predict future resilience. Salt marsh survival relative to sealevel rise increasingly relies on the accumulation and preservation of soil organic carbon (SOC). Firstly, I characterized SOC development and turnover in a New England salt marsh and found that salt marsh soils typically store marsh grass-derived compounds that are reworked over centuries-to-millennia. Next, I assessed how two common marsh disturbances – natural ponding and anthropogenic mosquito ditching – affect salt marsh carbon cycling and storage. Salt marsh ponds deepen through soil erosion and decomposition of long-buried marsh peat. Further, the SOC lost during pond development is not fully recouped once drained ponds are revegetated and virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding marsh. Mosquito ditches, which were installed in ~ 90% of New England salt marshes during the Great Depression, did not significantly alter marsh carbon storage. In Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a US National Estuary, we tested relationships among measures of estuarine water quality, recreational activity, and local socioeconomic conditions to understand how the benefits of cultural ecosystem services are affected by shifts in water quality associated with global change and anthropogenic activity. Over a 24-year period, water quality degradation coinciding with increases in Chlorophyll a is associated with declines in fishery abundance and cultural ecosystem service values ($0.08 – 0.67 million USD). In combination, incorporation of both anthropogenic and natural disturbances to coastal ecosystem functioning and service delivery can produce improved estimates of ecosystem service valuation for effective resource decision-making under future climate scenarios.

Farm to Institution to Farm: Circular Food Systems With Native Entomoculture

Edible insects recycle food waste, which can help feed a hungrier planet by making food systems more circular and diversifying protein production. The potential for entomophagy (i.e., insect cuisine) to contribute to waste recycling and lower input food production is only beginning to be explored in the U.S., although insects have been consumed by people for millennia in a wide range of cultures. In this perspective piece, we consider as a case study the potential for university foodservice programs in New England to serve as incubators for circular entomophagous food systems. Students are likely early adopters of entomophagy because they increasingly demand sustainable non-meat protein options. University foodservices meanwhile purchase large amounts of food wholesale from local producers, utilize standardized pre-processing, and generate consistent waste streams which may be valuable feed for local insect farmers. Current Farm to Institution approaches strengthen regional food systems by connecting small farmers with university foodservices; we argue that a similar model (Farm to Institution to Farm) could support establishment of local insect farms, introduce edible insects to a relatively receptive base of university student customers, and provide a more sustainable mechanism for repurposing university food waste as insect feed. But to enable this type of food system, additional requirements include: (1) research on domestication of native insect species; (2) investment in processing capacity, ensuring new insect farmers have reliable markets for raw insect products; (3) infrastructure to recirculate waste streams within existing food systems; and (4) creation of recipes that entice new insect consumers.

Analysis of the Research Hotspot of Drug Treatment of Tuberculosis: A Bibliometric Based on the Top 50 Cited Literatures

Objective. The objective of the current study was to analyze the research hotspot of drug treatment for tuberculosis via top literatures. Materials and Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on June 7th, 2021. Literatures were searched on the Web of Science Core Collection to identify the top 50 cited literatures related to drug treatment of tuberculosis. The characteristics of the literatures were identified. The outcomes included authorship, journal, study type, year of publication, and institution. Cooccurrence network analysis and visualization were conducted using the VOS viewer (Version 1.6.16; Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands). Results. The top 50 cited literatures were cited 308 to 2689 times and were published between 1982 and 2014. The most studied drugs were the first-line drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin ( n = 22 ), and drug-resistant tuberculosis was most frequently reported ( n = 16 ). They were published in 18 journals, and the New England Journal of Medicine published the most literatures ( n = 18 ), followed by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ( n = 7 ), and the Lancet ( n = 6 ). The authors were from 13 countries, and the authors from the USA published most of the literatures ( n = 30 ), while authors from other countries published less than five literatures. The CDC in the USA ( n = 4 ), the World Health Organization (WHO) ( n = 3 ), and the American Philosophical Society ( n = 3 ) were the leading institutions, and only two authors published at least two top-cited literatures as first authors. Conclusions. This study provides insights into the development and most important literatures on drug therapy for tuberculosis and evidence for future research on tuberculosis treatment.

Royall Tyler

Royall Tyler (b. 1757–d. 1826) was born to a prominent merchant family in Boston and came of age in the decades leading up to the American Revolution. He entered Harvard College in 1771 and earned his bachelor of arts degree three months after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. Tyler then enlisted in the Revolutionary Army, although he remained in Boston and Cambridge studying law. His active military service seems to have been limited to serving as a brigade major during the unsuccessful 1778 attempt to capture Newport, Rhode Island. As the war continued, Tyler earned his master of arts degree from Harvard in 1779 and engaged in a failed courtship of Abigail Adams, the daughter of future president John Adams. After the war, Tyler became involved in the suppression of Shays’ Rebellion in 1786. When Daniel Shays fled to Vermont, Tyler was assigned to negotiate with authorities in New York, which still laid claim to the territory, to ensure that the rebel did not find safe harbor. In New York City Tyler launched his literary career; in April 1787, The Contrast began its run in New York as the first professionally produced American comic drama and one of the first successful American plays. Months later Tyler produced a second play, May Day in Town, that is no longer extant. In 1790, Tyler returned to Boston and married Mary Palmer, who would later publish the first American manual for infant care. They relocated to Vermont, where the couple remained for the rest of their lives. In the years to follow, Tyler published numerous poems and essays, including a popular series of essays in collaboration with Joseph Dennie under the title of “Colon & Spondee.” In 1797, Tyler published the novel The Algerine Captive, which achieved moderate success and was one of the first American books to be republished in Great Britain. In the 1800s and 1810s Tyler served for six years as the chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and launched a failed bid for the U.S. Senate. He completed several new plays, including his biblical dramas and the epistolary satire The Yankey in London (1809). At the time of his death in 1826 he was rewriting the first half of The Algerine Captive as a New England picaresque titled The Bay Boy, which would remain unpublished until 1968.